‘Judge Dredd’ TV Series to Be ‘Dark Fantasy,’ Might Premiere in 2019

It’s early enough that the Judge Dredd: Mega-City One TV series hasn’t taken shape just yet, but the new version could feel much more familiar to fans. Not only do producers describe it as “dark fantasy” with “400 million stories to tell,” but we might know when to expect it.

Mega-City One executive producer and Rebellion CEO Jason Kingsley gave a few new details to SFX Magazine (h/t GamesRadar), noting that Alex Garland’s 2012 Dredd didn’t have time to flesh out the show’s title city. It also sounds like the more fantastical side of the source material will come into play, unlike either film adaptation:

Dark fantasy elements are one area that would be great to explore. The show will combine the macabre with the insane and the light-hearted. It’s a big place, after all, with 400 million stories to tell … Long-form storytelling makes showing Mega-City One and its inhabitants much easier. Trying to fit all of that into a two-hour movie is very hard.

That said, Kingsley noted “My best guess is that it’s at least two years away,” and it’s early enough in the process that production speed could change on a dime. IM Global and UK game developer Rebellion are working on the new live-action Judge Dredd series, though the as-yet-unattached “ensemble drama” has no cast to speak of, and certainly not Karl Urban (yet).

Here’s how initial reports described the new series:

The show is set in a future where the East Coast of the U.S. has become a crowded and crime-ridden megalopolis. It will be an ensemble drama about a team of Judges — futuristic cops invested with the power to be judge, jury, and executioner — as they deal with the challenges the future-shocked 22nd century throws at them.

It’s plausible that the series could at least come together in 2018 to make a 2019 premiere date (which, again, was only a guess), but stay tuned for the latest on Judge Dredd: Mega-City One as it arrives.